


your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system

by elksbian



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, and ended up being a lot longer than i expected, the beards are Not Mentioned Once though so you can enjoy that, this started from such a dumb idea kajsldkajsdla
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 19:45:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8681059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elksbian/pseuds/elksbian
Summary: if regina knew she was going to be stuck in another world for a vague, but long, period of time, she would've brought her lipstick with her. and maybe some cider.goes off of the 6x10 promo.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this was a really ridiculous idea, and i was originally going to try and write it as a crack fic, but i ended up really loving this? it's also longer than i expected. it's 2:30 in the morning here right now, and i really don't have to energy to write more when i a) have school and b) honestly have No Idea where i want to end this. so it'll be in two parts. hope you enjoy!

Regina has been stuck in this godforsaken forest for six hours. After the Queen’s wish (via Emma) was cast, Regina woke up on a pile of dead leaves and the feel of the warmth of a sunrise on her face. The sun hasn’t gone away since then, and she’s sweaty, too embarrassed to remove her coat in fear of the smell, and her lipstick only lasts 18 hours, and with the six hours added to the morning of finding Aladdin stuck in a lamp being controlled by her evil half, the clock is ticking. Regina wants to leave this ridiculous world safe and sound, and safe and sound includes intact lipstick.

 

She could really use something to drink right now, but finding out what this curse is and breaking it calls, and she isn’t allowed to hang up or have it go to voicemail.

 

Regina has gathered some information about the world they’re stuck in. Emma’s wish was to not be the savior; this is a universe in which she never had the chance to be one. Obviously in the Enchanted Forest, Regina wonders how the Evil Queen is faring. Did the curse fail? Did she never cast it at all? Is she dead? She doubts the latter, as her beating heart proves otherwise. But why would her counterpart be okay with living in a world in which she failed? 

 

Unless she knows that this world was constructed, Regina muses. This world was wished on by the Evil Queen; there’s no way it doesn’t benefit her somehow. Maybe that benefit includes installing terror in the hearts of the civilians who live here.

 

She inferred that last statement when she tried to walk into town an hour after her arrival and almost found herself burned at the stake. Thanks, Leroy. Or Grumpy, whatever.

 

So Regina has spent the remaining hours exploring the forest and pondering. If the curse never happened, Emma must have been raised a princess, and turned out completely differently than the Emma Regina grew close to. She thinks of Snow and David, with dusty hair and crow’s feet. She thinks of Henry, also, and her heart sinks.

 

No matter what path Regina sees herself going, she can’t imagine one without Henry. The idea of the Queen seeing otherwise is what scares Regina the most.

 

Regina’s thoughts are interrupted by the rustling of leaves several trees ahead. She suddenly becomes focused on the break of a green, green landscape and sees a white cape. Walking closer, her heart skips a beat when she realizes who it is. She approaches.

 

“Emma?” she asks. Emma is picking flowers, and Regina can feel the Disney references bleed and writhe on the forest floor. “What the hell happened to you?”

 

Emma looks up, startled, and Regina has to do her best not to stare. She’s so… soft. Regina expects her to ask who she is and how she know’s Emma’s name, to run, to maybe even draw a dagger (Regina can’t help but believe Emma is a spitfire, even in worlds where she wasn’t groomed to be one).

 

“Regina?” Emma says. “I haven’t seen you in two moon cycles. Where have you been?”

 

That, Regina does not expect.

 

 

“I’m… sorry?” asks Regina.

 

“You said we couldn’t do this anymore.” Emma honest to god pouts, bottom lip poked out. “So you think you can cut your hair and dress more masculine just to tease me? I miss you. You don’t have to look like that to remind me.”

 

She says this while roaming her eyes over Regina’s figure, and, wow, it’s like when they first met, except this time, Emma’s eyes roam with familiarity, not curiousity.

 

Regina tries not to gasp like a fish out of water, especially when her mother no longer has a grave to roll in. “I think you have the wrong person,” she finally manages to spit out.

 

“Are you sure?” Emma smirks, and, yeah, this is the Emma Regina knows. “So you don’t have that birthmark on your hipbone, right next to your--”

 

“Okay!” Regina says, her voice harsh, clutching the collar of her coat nervously. “No need to mention things like that. I just meant… I’m not the Regina you know.”

 

When Emma cocks her head curiously, Regina continues. “I’m from another universe.”

 

“Really?” Emma perks up. “That seems so fascinating! What’s it like?”

 

“Well…” Regina scratches the base of her neck, trying to find an explanation. “When you were born, I… cast a curse that froze everyone in time. We all ended up in another universe, one with more futuristic technology. And… your parents, they put you in a wardrobe to escape and break the curse when you came of age. You grew up an orphan.”

 

Emma’s eyes dim. “Oh.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Regina says, but Emma can only look at her with growing shame. “I promise, I… I learned from my mistakes. I still do. One of my closest friends is Snow. You, too. We share a son.”

 

“A son?”

 

Regina feels tears prick her eyes, and she gives Emma a wet smile. “Yes. His name is Henry.”

 

“After your father?” asks Emma, and Regina nods. She’s surprised at how much the Queen has shared with this Emma.

 

“He’s one of the best people in my life. He made me who I am. I wish I could say I regret casting the curse, but… I can’t. I regret the pain it caused, but I can never regret Henry. I also can’t regret indoor plumbing,” Regina adds, and while the last part seems to fly over Emma’s head, she smiles.

 

“The Regina here regrets the things she’s done, too.” Emma twiddles the stem of one of the flowers in her basket. “The kingdom still thinks she’s evil, though. My parents don’t even know that I’ve met her, nonetheless that we’re divulging in an… affair.”

 

“I see,” is all Regina can say.

 

“That’s great, though,” Emma says. “To know we still share love in this alternate universe.”

 

“L-love?” Regina sputters. “We’re… we’re friends, of course, but love…”

 

“I do not understand.” Emma purses her lips, one of her eyebrows dipping in confusion. “We share a son. Are we not together?”

 

“It’s complicated,” Regina states, but Emma gives her a dubious stare.

 

“How did you get here?” Emma questions her, and Regina almost sighs in relief at the change of conversation.

 

“Do you know what a savior is?”

 

“Yes,” Emma answers. “I’ve read about them in story books.”

 

“In my world, you’re a savior.” Emma’s eyes shine at this. “Except you felt like it only caused you harm, and you wished that you’d never been the savior. The Evil Queen… we’re two separate people, it’s a long story, but she gave that wish to a genie. We were surrounded by smoke, and then I woke up here, in the forest. That was several hours ago.”

 

“I didn’t want to be a savior?” Emma looks past Regina, in her own thoughts, for a long second, and then returns to reality. “So you’re saying that this is all one big… hallucination?”

 

“Precisely.” Regina tucks hair behind her ear. “And we have to get ourselves back to normal.”

 

“Normal,” Emma repeats. She grabs Regina’s hand, and intertwines their fingers. “I know someone who can help.”

 

Regina is too shocked at the sudden and seemingly intimate contact to argue.

 

As Emma tugs them along unknown trails through the forest, she explains. “I trust you, Regina, even if you’re not my Regina. My brother, James, is my best friend, and the only other person who knows of what the other Regina and I have been up to. He’s incredibly intelligent. More than me, I think, sometimes. If there’s a way out of what you think is a curse, he’ll know it.”

 

“You expect me to walk into the castle?” Regina asks. “The guards will have me pinned to the floor before you can even say hello.”

 

“I have a potion that can disguise how you look for about an hour and a half.” When Regina gives her a surprised glance, she rolls her eyes and laughs. “How do you think I’m able to escape the castle grounds without guards following me? I have my ways.”

 

They pause for a minute as Emma digs around her basket, pulling out a vial filled with an electric blue potion. “It’s the only one I have, but you can have it.”

 

“I…” Regina takes the potion from Emma, and their fingers brush. “Thank you, Emma.”

 

“Anything for a so-called friend.” Regina can’t tell if Emma meant that in a ‘I trust that we’re friends in this universe you speak of’ manner or as in ‘I don’t believe you and think we’re lovers’.

 

Bottoms up, Regina thinks, and she downs the potion.

 

 

As the walk to the castle, Emma tells Regina what the potion caused her to look like. Her face is thinner, more angular, and her hair is longer, brushing past her shoulders. She’s about two inches taller, and she’s curvier. Regina can appreciate that. Her clothes are the same, though, Emma notes, so she’ll still stick out at the grounds. Considering the other option of going in as herself, Regina’s okay with that.

 

“My lipstick’s probably gone, too,” Regina sighs in frustration. “I wanted it to last the whole 18 hours.”

 

“I’m sorry about that,” Emma apologizes, even though it’s obvious to the both of them that Emma has no idea what Regina is talking about.

 

“Gosh, I wish I had my phone with me,” Regina laughs. “In my universe, you’d never be caught dead wearing something like that and picking flowers.”

 

Emma, who had been picking said flowers along the way, narrowed her eyes. “Flowers are nice looking, and picking them helps pass the time. And what’s a phone?”

 

“Part of that futuristic technology I mentioned before,” answers Regina.

 

“And besides, it’s not my favorite activity to partake in. I like other things,” Emma grins, “like, say, horseback riding.”

 

Regina coughs to avoid choking, because Emma had never been that forward to anyone. Not even in the beginning when Emma took a chainsaw to her tree, or stared at her lips for what seems like five minutes before saving Henry from that mine (because, yeah, Regina’s not an idiot, and knows tension when she’s a part of it). She’s sure Emma only ever chalked it up to anger at the time, though.

 

“Here,” Emma says after several minutes of silence, right outside the grounds. “There’s an underground passage here that mostly the lower classes take. Servants, and whatnot. But it’s an off hour; hopefully we don’t bump into anyone.”

 

They don’t, luckily enough, but once inside the castle, a knighted guard in shining, golden armor stops them right outside of the library.

 

“Who are you with, Princess?” the knight’s booming voice demands. “And how did such a poorly dressed companion get inside of the castle?”

 

Emma and Regina look at each other, neither of them able to come up with an answer. Before Regina thinks to try and knock out the knight, he laughs airily, and takes the helmet off.

 

“Got you!” he says. “You thought I was a real knight, huh, Emma? Guess my classes are going better than I realized!”

 

“You imbecile! You scared me half to death!” Emma growls, but her tone is playful.

 

Regina, though, is too shocked to say anything when the face of her son is staring back at her. “Henry,” she whispers, and he and Emma look at her strangely.

 

“Henry?” Emma says. “No, Regina, this isn’t your son. This is James.”

 

Regina takes her hand out of Emma’s grasp, which she realizes they’re still in, and rubs her hand absentmindedly. “Sorry. I just thought…”

 

“We’ll get you back, and you can be with him,” Emma says, looking at Regina with soft eyes. “Don’t worry.”

 

“So, really, what are you here for?” asks James. “To find your son?”

 

“Not just that,” Emma answers. “Look… We need to get into the library, right now. The potion is about to wear off.”

 

James looks around to make sure no one is watching, and then opens one of the double doors to the library, gesturing for Regina and Emma to walk in. They walk to a set of armchairs surrounded by bookcases. James sits in one of the chairs.

 

“Potion?” he says. “Like the one that disguises you? Why did you use it on her?”

 

“You’ll see in a minute,” says Emma, and as she finishes her statement, Regina starts to feel nauseous.

 

Emma sees the look on Regina’s face and blushes. “Oh, I’m sorry, Regina. The potion taking effect isn’t too bad, but this is what happens when it wears off. I feel bad for forgetting to tell you.”

 

“It’s fine,” Regina mumbles, and she rubs her temples. When she hears Henry--James-- gasp, she knows that the potion has completely worn off.

 

“The Evil Queen is here?” James whispers. “Are you mad?”

 

“It’s not the Regina we know!” Emma says. “It’s a Regina from an alternate universe. One where she cursed us.”

 

“You cursed us?” James raises an eyebrow at Regina.

 

“I’m not evil,” says Regina. “I’m only trying to find my way home.”

 

“So we just have to find your universe and stick you there,” states James, and Regina shakes her head.

 

“No,” she says. “You guys are my family. You and Emma… Zelena… Snow and Charming… you all are cursed to believe that I never cast a curse and Emma was never a savior. It’s not trying to find my universe, it’s you trying to realize you’re in the wrong one. This isn’t an alternate universe, just… a skewed one.”

 

“And how do you know that we’re the people you know instead of different people entirely?” James asks, still not buying Regina’s story.

 

Regina takes a deep breath. “I’ve told Emma that when I cast the curse as the queen, her parents put her in a magical wardrobe so she wouldn’t be a part of the curse, one where everyone was frozen in time, and she would break it on her 28th birthday. What I didn’t mention is that she gave birth to a baby boy when she was 18.”

 

Emma looks at Regina, who’s starting to shake, and rests her hand on Regina’s shoulder for comfort.

 

“She couldn’t take care of him, though, a child herself and no one to turn to, having grown up an orphan. So she put him up for adoption, which means she decided to give him to parents that could take care of him. I unknowingly adopted him and raised him as my own. He is. He is my son. We’ve gone through ups and downs, especially when he was upset when he learned I wasn’t his birth mother and brought Emma into town...” Regina’s crying at this point, and she wipes her tears away hurriedly. “But I love him with every part of my being, and Emma does, too. We’ve done so much to make sure you’re always happy with who you are.”

 

“Who I am?” James asks, and Regina curses herself for her slip up.

 

“Yes,” she agrees, hesitantly. “You’re my son. You’re our son. Henry. You were named after my father, one of the only people who always believed in me, and you’ve kept up his legacy so far. Whenever I doubt myself, you’re the first person to come running to me with reasons why I need to believe in myself. All I ask is that you believe me now. Because I know with a certainty that if I had never cast the curse, you wouldn’t exist. Yet here you are, standing before me. Do you have an explanation for that?”

 

James thinks in silence for what seems like an eternity, before answering. “But this all feels so real. How can I be so sure?”

 

“I lived in a curse for almost three decades,” Regina says. “And it felt like some of the realest parts of my life, but it also felt empty. I felt like I could only do certain things, act certain ways, because that’s how things had been for so long. I felt monotonous, and alone, despite being surrounded by people, and the only thing that changed that is when I held my son in my arms for the first time. He was wailing, his face was red and puckered up, but it was the moment I realized I deserved more, that you deserved more. I’m here to tell you that same message. You don’t have to feel empty anymore. You can feel like you’re a part of something again.”

 

James stood up. “If you’re right, and you truly are my mother… I’m glad you are. I’m glad you made me who I am.”

 

And Regina cries at this, she’s sobbing, impossibly harder when her son comes up to hug her. It’s weird, and feels impersonal due to his donning of armor, but Regina hugs him back. He’s taller than her, now, and she tucks the crown of her head into his plated chest for a few moments before gaining composure and drying her eyes.

 

“What do we do?” Emma asks. Her voice is determined, a vicious backbone Regina hasn’t felt from Emma in a long time, even in the world before.

 

“True Love’s Kiss?” wonders James. “With you, Regina, most likely, as you’re the only person in this world that remembers things no one else does.”

 

“Not when the Evil Queen is out on the loose,” says Regina. “We’ve already learned my magic is weaker when we’re not together. I don’t know if I can pull off a True Love’s Kiss.”

 

“Together?”

 

“We were the same and separated not too long ago,” Regina sighs, repeating herself. “It’s a long story. If I can break this curse, I won’t have to tell you.”

 

“If you can’t break the curse with the kiss, then, how do you expect to break it?” Emma asks.

 

“With something I hate having to do,” Regina says.

 

“What’s that?” It’s Emma that asks the question, but both she and James are looking at her, identical inquisitive looks in their eyes. Regina can tell that in this world, their generational traits are mistaken for ones that siblings share.

 

“We’re going to have to ask the Evil Queen nicely. She’s the reason we’re in this mess, after all.”


End file.
